Ayotte speaks on fiscal issues in town hall forum

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., addressed the country's fiscal situation in a town hall forum in Brentwood on Thursday afternoon.

Ayotte wore a Red Sox cap the forum, saying that rooting for the team in the World Series was something they could all agree on. She later used a baseball analogy to explain the deficit.

"We could pay for all the 2013 salaries for every professional baseball player for the next 248 years just with this year's deficit," she said.

The forum was Ayotte's 26th town hall since taking office. She said she has been hearing anger and frustration about the government shutdown.

"I didn't support the government shutdown," she said. "I tried to be part of a group to solve it, to get our leadership off the dime to come to an agreement."

Ayotte sits on the Senate Budget Committee.

"I'm hoping we can find common ground," she said. "There's over the decade about a $5 trillion difference between the two proposed budgets, so that's where the issues will arise, but we need to resolve these issues and have a budget for our country. We can't find ourselves where we were recently. It's just unacceptable."

Consensus-building was a theme Ayotte repeated.

"It took us two parties to get this far into debt, and it will take two parties to get us out of debt," she said.

Questions from the audience ranged from gun control to veterans' issues to the Affordable Care Act. Ayotte said she has heard lots of angst and concern regarding the rollout of the health care exchange.

"What I don't understand is that the president has delayed the mandate for businesses for a year," she said. "I don't understand why he wouldn't delay it for individuals for a year with all of these problems."

Ayotte will be in Hudson on Thursday night for another town hall forum.

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